Dave Nakama


David M. Nakama in an American college baseball coach who is currently a volunteer assistant coach at Washington.
Nakama previously has been head coach at junior colleges Mission and Treasure Valley, Division II San Francisco State, and Division I San Jose State.

Early life and education

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Nakama graduated from Kaiser High School. He moved to Oregon to attended Willamette University and played at infielder for the Willamette Bearcats baseball team. Nakama graduated from Willamette in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in physical education and earned a master's in the same subject from the University of Northern Colorado in 1986.

Coaching career

Nakama was an assistant coach at Northern Colorado from 1985 to 1986 while working on his master's degree. He later was an assistant at Iowa, then moved to the junior college as an assistant at Yavapai and De Anza.
In 1991, Nakama earned his first head coaching position at Mission College in Santa Clara, California, where he remained for five seasons. He led Mission to the state junior college tournament in 1995 and 1996 and earned Coast Conference Coach of the Year honors in 1996. Nakama joined Stanford as an assistant coach under Mark Marquess in 1997.
From 1999 to 2001, Nakama served as head coach at San Francisco State. Nakama returned to the Pac-12 as top assistant at Stanford, before moving to Washington. Nakama then returned to Stanford as assistant coach, a position he would hold from 2002 to 2009, then was an assistant on Lindsay Meggs's staff at Washington from 2010 to 2012. Meggs formally named Nakama the associate head coach on September 2, 2011.
In September 2012, Nakama was named head coach at San Jose State, his first Division I head coaching job. Nakama's time at San Jose State ended in June 2016, following a 66–162 record in four seasons; San Jose State declined to renew Nakama's contract.
On July 24, 2017, Nakama returned to Washington to be a volunteer assistant coach for his second stint working under Lindsay Meggs.

Head coaching record

The following lists Nakama's record as an NCAA head baseball coach.